Connection splice plate for connecting two portions of a wire cable tray, wire cable tray equipped with same and wire cable tray having two portions connected with such a splice plate

ABSTRACT

The invention concerns a connection splice plate for connecting two portions of a wire cable tray consisting of wires of two different types, lengthwise wires and crosswise wires, said two portions being connected and assembled via their abutting crosswise wires: the splice plate comprises a U-shaped body ( 31 ) with two wings ( 32, 34 ) and a web ( 33 ), said wings ( 32, 34 ) including each at least two indentations ( 32 A,  34 A) with parallel edges, the indentations ( 32 A) of one wing ( 32 ) facing the indentations ( 34 A) of the other wing ( 34 ), the mutually parallel edges of one indentation being parallel to the mutually parallel edges of the other indentation, one of the edges of at least one of the opposite indentations bearing a lug ( 35 A called locking lug, said locking lugs being adapted to be folded, towards the inside of the U-shape of the body ( 31 ), on each of said crosswise abutting wires.

The present invention relates generally to wire cable trays.

Wire cable trays comprise a mesh made up of wires of two different types, namely, on the one hand, longitudinal wires, commonly called warp wires, that run longitudinally and in a rectilinear or quasi-rectilinear manner over their entire length and, secondly, disposed transversely from place to place along the longitudinal wires and appropriately fastened thereto, U-shaped transverse wires, commonly called weft wires, the combination forming three panels which in practice are plane or substantially plane, namely a bottom panel and two lateral panels.

These wire cable trays are routinely used to support, house and protect electrical cables and the like, in the manner of a trough.

As used here and hereinafter, the expression “electrical cables” is to be understood as meaning not only cables for transporting and distributing electrical power but also cables and fibers adapted to transmit information in an electrical, optical or other manner.

With regard to electrical cables, wire cable trays have many advantages that are appreciated by installers and in particular the advantages of easy installation, and therefore of economy, of flexibility, because electrical cables can be fed out through any of their meshes, of transparency, and thus of easy identification of the electrical cables, of ventilation, of cleanliness, of safety, as much for the electrical cables as for users, and of performance.

As is known in the art, a cable tray comprises a plurality of portions: it is made up of a plurality of elements assembled end-to-end or at an angle to each other, or constituting a T-shape, X-shape, Y-shape or other shape junction, in which case the portions are either different elements or parts of the same element; in the former case, the portions are assembled end-to-end; in the second case, a lateral panel of the element is cut to produce the two portions: the connection splice plate, referred to hereinafter as a fishplate, is fitted into the section after shaping the other lateral panel; curves with different radii may be formed in this way: although the radius is a function of the width of the cable tray, if one fishplate does not allow the required angle to be obtained, the lateral panel of the element may be cut at various locations and a fishplate fitted in each location.

An object of the present invention is to propose a fishplate for connecting very quickly two portions of wire cable trays of the above kind, without using nuts and bolts, said fishplate having no aggressive properties, being adapted to be premounted on one of the portions of the cable tray, and even recovered after use.

According to the invention, a fishplate for connecting two portions of a wire cable tray made up of wires of two different types, on the one hand, warp wires and, on the other hand, weft wires, said two portions being connected and thus assembled by means of their end weft wires, is characterized in that it comprises a U-shaped body having two flanges and a web, said flanges each comprising at least two notches with parallel edges, the notches of one flange facing the notches of the other flange, the parallel edges of one notch being parallel to the parallel edges of the other notch, one of the edges of at least one of the facing notches carrying a locking lug, and said lugs being adapted to be bent over toward the interior of the U-shape of the U-shaped body over each of said end weft wires.

At least one locking lug advantageously enables rotatable mounting of the fishplate on a portion of the cable tray.

The web of the U-shaped body advantageously has an open U-shape, the flanges of the U-shaped body extending from the web on the concave side of said open U-shaped web.

One flange of the U-shape of the U-shaped body preferably carries the locking lugs.

The locking lugs are advantageously perpendicular to the planes of the flanges before they are bent over to produce their locking effect.

The notches are preferably perpendicular to the plane bottom of the open U-shape of the web.

The lateral parts of the open U-shape constituting the web of the body advantageously extend from the flat bottom with an angle between them of the order of 120 degrees.

In a different embodiment, each flange comprises four notches.

The distances between two adjacent notches are preferably not equal.

The invention also provides a wire cable tray having two portions connected by at least one fishplate as defined above.

The two portions of the cable tray are advantageously two independent elements assembled end to end; alternatively, the two portions of the cable tray are parts of the same cable tray element, one lateral panel of which has been cut, and are connected by a fishplate fitted to said section after shaping the other lateral panel, enabling a bend to be formed in the cable tray.

The fishplate is preferably mounted by means of its notches on the facing end weft wires of the two cable trays, the lugs being bent over said flanges; the fishplate is mounted on the weft wires from the interior of the cable tray, its web being situated inside the latter.

The fishplate advantageously lies between two warp wires.

Ignoring assembly clearances, the width of the web of the U-shaped body of the fishplate is preferably globally equal to the distance between the two warp wires between which it lies.

The invention also provides a wire cable tray portion equipped with at least one fishplate as defined above, said fishplate being mounted to pivot about one flange of an end weft wire and lying inside the portion of the cable tray and along its lateral panel defined in particular by said flange.

To explain the invention better, embodiments depicted in the appended drawings are described next, by way of purely illustrative and nonlimiting example.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is an elevation view of a fishplate according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a view in section taken along the line II-II in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view in the direction of the arrow III FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a view showing the connection of two portions of cable tray by the fishplate from FIGS. 1 to 3;

FIG. 5 is a view in the direction of the arrow V in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view otherwise analogous to FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is analogous to FIG. 6 but represents a different embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a view in elevation of the FIG. 7 variant fishplate;

FIG. 9 is a view in section taken along the line IX-IX in FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a view in the direction of the arrow X in FIG. 8;

FIG. 11 is a partial plan view showing the assembly from FIG. 7; and

FIGS. 12 and 13 depict two other connecting positions of the fishplate from FIGS. 7 to 11.

FIGS. 1 to 3 show a fishplate 30 adapted to connect one after the other two wire cable tray portions 10, 20 (see FIGS. 4 to 6).

These wire cable tray portions 10, 20 comprise, in the manner that is known in the art, a mesh made up of wires of two different types, namely, in the case of the portion 10, longitudinal wires 11 that run longitudinally in a rectilinear or substantially rectilinear manner over the whole of its length and, secondly, disposed transversely from place to place, at a regular pitch, along the longitudinal wires 11 and appropriately fastened thereto, U-shaped transverse wires 12, the combination forming overall, in the manner of a trough, three panels 13, 14, namely a bottom panel 13 and two lateral panels 14.

In practice, the wires 11, 12 are metal wires, to be more precise steel wires, and they are welded together where they cross over.

By design, the wires 11, 12 cross over at different levels; in this example, the longitudinal wires 11 are on the outside of the transverse wires 12.

In the embodiment shown, all the wires 11, 12 are round wires, i.e. their cross section is circular.

As shown here, the diameter of the cross section is the same for all the wires, but this is not necessarily always the case.

In the embodiment shown, the bottom panel 13 has no longitudinal wire 11 and each of the lateral panels comprises only two longitudinal wires 11, namely an intermediate longitudinal wire 11 substantially at its mid-height and an edge longitudinal wire 11.

However, the number of longitudinal wires 11 may be different, of course; likewise, the bottom panel 13 may comprise any number of longitudinal wires 11.

The portion 20 of the cable tray is identical to the portion 10 and its components are identified by the same reference symbols as those of the portion 10 increased by 10.

The transverse wires 12, 22 being U-shaped, the reference numbers 15, 25 designate their flanges and 16, 26 designate their webs, respectively.

The longitudinal wires 11, 21 are commonly called warp wires and the transverse wires 12, 22 are commonly called weft wires.

To connect the portions 10, 20 one after the other, they are prepared so that, at the end where they are to be butt-jointed, the warp wires are cut substantially in line with the end weft wire, which is then at the end of the corresponding portion, as may be seen in the figures.

The fishplate 30 comprises a U-shaped body 31 having two flanges 32, 34 and a web 33.

The flanges 32, 34 each comprise two notches with parallel edges.

To be more precise, the flange 32 comprises two notches 32A, 32B with parallel edges; the parallel edges of the notch 32A or 32B are parallel to the parallel edges of the notch 32B or 32A.

One of the edges of the notches 32A, 32B carries a respective locking lug 35A, 35B; in this example, the lugs 35A and 35B are carried by the farthest apart edges of the notches 32A, 32B.

The flange 34 also comprises two notches 34A, 34B with parallel edges; the parallel edges of the notch 34A or 34B are parallel to the parallel edges of the notch 34B or 34A.

The notches 34A, 34B are not provided with locking lugs in the example shown, but could be.

The notches 32A and 32B, on the one hand, and the notches 34A, 34B, on the other hand, are disposed vertically, relative to FIG. 1, in line with each other and facing each other.

The notches 32A, 32B, 34A, 34B are adapted to receive the flanges 15, 25 of the weft wires 12, 22 of the cable tray 10 and 20, as described hereinafter; their width is determined accordingly.

The web 33 of the body 31 of the fishplate 30 has an open U-shape; the flanges 32, 34 of the body 31 extend from the web 33 on the concave side of said open U-shaped web 33; the lateral parts of the open U-shape extend from the bottom of said open U-shape, which in this example is flat, with an angle between them of the order of 120 degrees.

In the example shown, the notches 32A, 32B, 34A, 34B are globally perpendicular to the flat bottom of said open U-shape.

It will be noted that the lateral portions of the open U-shape are joined to its flat bottom via rounded, non-aggressive areas.

The same goes for the connection of the flanges 32, 34 of the body 31 to the web 33 thereof.

It will also be noted that the locking lugs 35A, 35B extend inside the body 31 of the fishplate 30; in this example, before they are bent over to lock them, they are perpendicular to the planes of the flanges 32 and 34, which are parallel to each other.

A fishplate of the above kind is used in the following manner:

Referring to FIGS. 4 to 6, the two portions 10 and 20 are aligned with the face-to-face end weft wires 12 and 22; two fishplates 30 are mounted from the inside of the portions 10 and 20, and receive in their notches 32A-34B and 32B-34B the flanges 15, 25 of said weft wires 12 and 22.

The locking lugs 35A, 35B are bent over the flanges 15, 25 of the weft wires 12 and 22, which locks the fishplates 30 relative to said flanges 15, 25 of the weft wires 12, 22 and therefore locks the connection of the two portions 10, 20.

In the figures, only the lug 35B is shown bent over into the locking position.

To facilitate connection, it is possible to mount the two fishplates 30 so that they are able to rotate about the flanges of the weft wire at the end of a portion by bending the corresponding locking lug over the flanges of said weft wire; as a result, the fishplates 30 are mounted so that they are able to rotate about said flanges; for storage, it is advantageous to pivot the fishplates 30 about said flanges, in particular so that they extend along the lateral panels 14; the cable tray portion may therefore be shipped fully equipped, with premounted fishplates.

To connect this cable tray portion to another, it suffices to bring the two portions together and to deploy the fishplates outwards, by rotation about the flanges of the weft wire, and to introduce the flanges of the other weft wire into the appropriate notches of the fishplates, the connection being completed by bending over the remaining locking lugs.

So that they can be used for wire cable tray portions whose wires are different diameters, especially the weft wires, the widths of the notches of the fishplates are advantageously sufficient to receive the various diameters and the edge of the locking lugs adapted to cooperate with the flanges of the weft wires is advantageously inclined to the bending hinge line of the lug, i.e. it is not orthogonal to it, so that locking is effective for the different wire diameters.

It will also have been noted that because the fishplates are disposed between two warp wires, their height, that is to say the width of the web of their U-shaped body 31 is practically equal to the distance between the two warp wires: this locks the fishplates along the flanges of the weft wires.

FIGS. 7 to 13 show a different embodiment of a fishplate according to the invention.

This variant 130, seen better in FIGS. 8 to 10, is similar to the fishplate 30 but each flange of the U-shaped body comprises four notches.

Components of the fishplate 130 analogous to or having the same function as those of the fishplate 30 are identified by the same reference numbers as their counterparts in the fishplate 30 increased by 100.

As may be seen in the figures, the edges of the notches 132A, 132B, 132C, 132D and 134A, 134B, 134C, 134D are parallel to each other and one of the edges of each notch of one of the flanges carries a locking lug 135A, 135B, 135C, 135D.

FIG. 7 shows the use of a fishplate of the invention at a change of direction of a cable tray, in other words at a bend.

In this example, the section 110 as shown has two lateral longitudinal wires 111; on one side, the two longitudinal wires have been cut to leave space for a fishplate 130 whereas, on the other side, the longitudinal wires have been bent to form the bend.

In this example, as may also be seen in FIG. 11, which is a partial plan view of the section 110 from FIG. 7, the flanges 115 of the weft wires 112 are received in the end notches 132A-134A, on the one hand, and 132D-134D, on the other hand, of the fishplate 130.

As will have been noted, the web 133 of the body 131 of the fishplate 130 has an open U-shape whose lateral portions are bent slightly inward at around its mid-length, said web 133 then having a five-sided polygonal shape.

By using the end notches as in FIGS. 7 and 11, the change in direction of the cable tray is of the order of 130 degrees.

It is possible to obtain different changes of direction with the same fishplate 130 by choosing two of the four notches: thus in FIG. 12, the notches 132C-134C and 132D-134D have been chosen and the angle is then of the order of 150 degrees; in FIG. 13, the notches 132B-134B and 132C-134C produce an angle of the order of 170 degrees.

The fishplate 30 from FIGS. 1 to 6 is shown connecting two cable tray portions aligned with one another; it could of course be used to produce a bend, as shown with regard to the fishplate 130; the fishplate 30 as shown could produce a change of direction of the order 120 degrees. 

1. Fishplate for connecting two portions (10, 20, 110) of a wire cable tray made up of wires of two different types, on the one hand, warp wires (11, 21, 111) and, on the other hand, weft wires (12, 22, 112), said two portions (10, 20, 110) being connected and thus assembled by means of their end weft wires (12, 22, 112), characterized in that it comprises a U-shaped body (31, 131) having two flanges (32, 132, 34, 134) and a web (33, 133), said flanges (32-132, 34-134) each comprising at least two notches (32A, . . . 132A . . . 134A . . . ) with parallel edges, the notches (32A . . . 132A . . . ) of one flange (32, 132) facing the notches (34A . . . 134A) of the other flange (34, 134), the parallel edges of one notch being parallel to the parallel edges of the other notch, one of the edges of at least one of the facing notches carrying a locking lug (35A, . . . 135A . . . ), and said lugs being adapted to be bent over toward the interior of the U-shape of the U-shaped body (31, 131) over each of said end weft wires (12, 22, 112).
 2. Fishplate according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one locking lug enables rotatable mounting of the fishplate (30, 130) on a portion (10, 20, 110) of the cable tray.
 3. Fishplate according to claim 1, characterized in that the web (33, 133) of the U-shaped body (31, 131) has an open U-shape, the flanges (32-132, 34-134) of the U-shaped body (31-131) extending from the web (33, 133) on the concave side of said open U-shaped web (33, 133).
 4. Fishplate according to claim 1, characterized in that one flange (34-134) of the U-shape of the U-shaped body (31-131) carries the locking lugs (35A . . . 135A . . . ).
 5. Fishplate according to claim 1, characterized in that the locking lugs (35A . . . 135A . . . ) are perpendicular to the planes of the flanges (32-132, 34-134) before they are bent over to produce their locking effect.
 6. Fishplate according to claim 3, characterized in that the notches (32A . . . 132A . . . 34A . . . 134A . . . ) are perpendicular to the plane bottom of the open U-shape of the web (33, 133).
 7. Fishplate according to claim 6, characterized in that the lateral parts of the open U-shape constituting the web (33) of the body (31) extend from the flat bottom with an angle between them of the order of 120 degrees.
 8. Fishplate according to claim 1, characterized in that each flange (132, 134) comprises four notches (132A . . . 134A . . . ).
 9. Fishplate according to claim 8, characterized in that the distances between two adjacent notches (132A . . . 134A . . . ) are not equal.
 10. Wire cable tray having two facing portions connected by at least one fishplate, characterized in that said fishplate conforms to claim
 1. 11. Wire cable tray according to claim 10, characterized in that the two portions of the cable tray are two independent elements assembled end to end.
 12. Wire cable tray according to claim 10, characterized in that the two portions of the cable tray are parts of the same cable tray element, one lateral panel of which has been cut, and are connected by a fishplate fitted to said section after shaping the other lateral panel, enabling a bend to be formed in the cable tray.
 13. Cable tray according to claim 10, characterized in that the fishplate (30, 130) is mounted by means of its notches on the facing end weft wires (12, 22, 112) of the two portions (10, 20, 110), the lugs (35A . . . 135A . . . ) being bent over said flanges (15, 25, 115).
 14. Cable tray according to claim 13, characterized in that the fishplate (30, 130) is mounted on the weft wires (12, 22, 112) from the interior of the cable tray, its web (33, 133) being situated inside the latter.
 15. Cable tray according to claim 10, characterized in that the fishplate (30, 130) lies between two warp wires (11, 21, 111).
 16. Cable tray according to claim 15, characterized in that, ignoring assembly clearances, the width of the web (33, 133) of the U-shaped body of the fishplate (30, 130) is globally equal to the distance between the two warp wires (11, 21, 111) between which it lies.
 17. Wire cable tray portion, characterized in that it is equipped with at least one fishplate according to claim 1, said fishplate (30, 130) being mounted to pivot about one flange (15, 25, 115) of an end weft wire (12, 22, 112) and lying inside the portion of the cable tray (10, 20, 110) and along its lateral panel (14, 24, 114) defined in particular by said flange (15, 25, 115). 